We have some very, very good news for Europeans (which happens to include myself): we have the European Parliament on our sides when it comes to battling ACTA. If you may recall, ACTA is basically an attempt by the US to impose upon the rest of the world draconian measures like three strikes laws and the DMCA. All parties within the European Parliament have together put forth a resolution that would effectively tackle ACTA.

I've got a linux box. I play a DVD. Therefore, under US laws, I'm a pirate, because I pass through some content protection (and this ways avoid unskippable ads and multiple piracy warnings on a DVD that I have paid). Is that normal ?

I buy DRMized music on my computer. The company gets out of business, and I lose access to my music because my media player cannot connect to their down web server. Under US laws, this is legally f--king up customers, they can do nothing about it...

If there is a way to avoid piracy, it's not AACS, legal spywares (like in french Hadopi/Loppsi laws), and DRMs/Activations. Every system like that includes security holes at a fundamental level and may be bypassed. People who pirate things don't get them. So it's just about ruining the life of legit customers and convince some of them that piracy is actually the way to better content quality.

I buy DRMized music on my computer. The company gets out of business, and I lose access to my music because my media player cannot connect to their down web server. Under US laws, this is legally f--king up customers, they can do nothing about it...

Most digital music is DRM free. I'm not even aware of any company that still tries to tie music to a player. Your DVD legal issues can be resolved by buying a $50 dvd player at Wal-mart. But if it makes you feel any better I think the patent time for media codecs should be shortened unless there is a clause for non-commercial use. However Thom's solution of legalizing piracy would kill off the R&D that funds innovative technologies like the MPEG codec. Allowing piracy eviscerates software economic models and replaces them with nothing. Most software that is developed depends on intellectual property protection laws. Software companies can't compete if it is legal to download a clone of their product. It isn't like other markets since the reproduction cost is $0 which is why we have laws that ensure the producers are compensated. Intellectual property laws make sense and the vast majority of economists support them.

If there is a way to avoid piracy, it's not AACS, legal spywares (like in french Hadopi/Loppsi laws), and DRMs/Activations. Every system like that includes security holes at a fundamental level and may be bypassed. People who pirate things don't get them. So it's just about ruining the life of legit customers and convince some of them that piracy is actually the way to better content quality.

Piracy is not a fixed rate. More people will pirate if they it is tacitly legal or culturally acceptable. We've already seen this in Asia where certain types of software can not be sold due to piracy making local markets untenable.

Though it can seem like some copyright laws are a burden the same can be said for many types of laws. Laws are not created for the sake of convenience. Following the law is often more difficult than breaking it.

Your DVD legal issues can be resolved by buying a $50 dvd player at Wal-mart.

Only if I have a TV to hook it up to. I don't. I've no use for a TV, the shows are crap and the few that aren't I can watch on Hulu. What I do have is a DVD drive already in my Ubuntu machine and a nice collection of perfectly legal DVDs that I purchased, and I'll be damned if some corporation is going to say I can't play them in whatever device I want to. I bought them, it's my right to use them as I see fit so long as I don't breach copyright, and playing them sure as hell doesn't qualify. We call that fair use, and the DMCA can go suck off.
Now, does that qualify as piracy to you? Wanting rights is *not* the same as wanting to be able to pirate. Sometimes I wonder just who you work for, you seem to be so pro-corporate at the expense of the consumer that I wonder if you don't have a personal stake in all this. You have a seriously warped reality if you think the current situation benefits anyone except the very few at the top of the CEO chain.